Winter CSAs
Last week we talked about where to find winter foods in Baltimore. This week, let’s discuss pre-ordering your local foods during the winter. Community Supported Agriculture, or CSAs, are a fantastic way to get local food year round. Some even deliver to you. They take the guess work out of what you want to buy, and where.
Here are ten different winter CSAs in the Baltimore area, offering a variety of tasty foods. Half of these CSAs sell meat, whether it is beef, pork, poultry, lamb or even rabbit. Obviously, meat is an easy option as a winter CSA. Meat freezes easily and you don’t have to keep it alive until the pick up day. All varieties of CSAs are represented, from one that allows you to buy in for three monthly meat options, to one that has a winter “add-on” for 22 weeks. Find a winter CSA near you and see what they have to offer!
Cabin Creek Heritage Farm offers both a meat and a microgreens CSA. They sell meat in four month “seasons” year round. You can pick up your share each month at their farm or at a drop off point in Riva. They offer a variety of meat shares, with pork, beef, and chicken. They even offer delivery to many locations. Their microgreen CSA is also available all year, available twice a month.
Evermore Farm also offers meats year round, plus eggs. You can purchase directly from them or sign up for a CSA share that runs from December to March to guarantee you get what you want to buy.
Rocklands Farm offers meat via CSA year round, on a month to month basis. Anyone can sign up, and can cancel at any time. They offer chicken, pork and lamb from their own farm. They also sell beef from a partner farm in Middletown. You pick up on the farm in Poolesville.
Strohmer’s Farm sells beef, pork and goat year round. You can sign up for a month at a time, and receive meat bundles each week, letting them keep it frozen rather than owning a large freezer yourself. They offer a mini share, a mega share, and also a weekly meat bundle.
The Genuine Food Company has quarterly meat CSAs, three months at a time, year round. They sell beef and pork. You can pick up in Glen Arm or they deliver to Baltimore City, County, and Harford County. They offer full (20lb) and half shares.
These additional five CSAs sell produce. Produce is a hard item to keep available in the winter, but these five manage it. If fresh local produce is important to you, then you will want to see what these farms have to offer!
Calvert Farm offers fresh winter grown produce from January to April via CSA. Both pick-up sites and delivery depend on the subscribers. They have many pick up locations in summer, all around Maryland and Delaware, so likely they could deliver to wherever you live.
Flying Plow Farm, offers winter vegetable CSA shares, in addition to selling meat year round. Their winter share runs for 16 weeks, and offers fresh winter vegetables and storage crops. They offer pick ups in Bel Air and on farm in Rising Sun.
Gorman Produce Farm offers an early winter CSA option from October until December. They sell out every year, and all pick ups are at the farm in Laurel. Gorman has been growing organically since 2008.
Pleasant Hill Produce has a winter CSA available from November through mid February. They offer vegetables and optional egg and meat shares. They offer delivery.
Priapi Gardens offers a produce CSA for ten weeks in the winter, from December to February. They offer pick up locations along the Eastern Shore. Their produce is certified organic.
Though most of the produce CSA options are either sold out or already started, the meat ones are still available. Next year, with some advance planning, you too can be enjoying fresh produce throughout the winter! Alternatively, you can ditch your deep freeze and purchase your own local meat monthly instead. With all these options, it’s easy to continue to enjoy local foods year round.
